The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1887-01-21
POPULAR SCIENCE.


In a recent lecture, Henry NJ. Stanley
related the details OF his exploration OF
Lake Victoria Nyanza in Africa, fifty
days being spent on it to prove it TO be
n single body of water Il, 500 square
miles in extent.
Sugar in its coarse state, called "goor,
has been used in India from time imme-
mortal as al ingredient in mortar. Ma
sonry oemented with this mortar has
been known to defy every effort of pick
and shovel, and to yield only to blasting
when it has been found necessary to re-
move old puckah buildings.
The Paris Municipal Council have de-
cided to open a hygienic museum, in
which the microscopic effects OF allowing
water to stagnate, and the skin to remain
dirty, and of bad air on the blood, will
be shown, as well as other causes of dis
ease. Lectures on the laws of health will
be delivered in connection with the ex-
hibition-
Town draugLts in chimneys may be
obviated by recent English device. It
consists Of number of grooved rings
placed over each ether with spaces be-
tween, and made of metal or clay. The
grooves are so shaped that when the
wind strikes them It is so detected that
it draws air up the chimney, and in this
way edectually prevents down-drauSht.
The red color of bricks is due to the
iron contained in the clay. In the pro
cess of burning, the iron compounds are
changed from the ferrous to the ferric
condition and rendered anhydrous, thus
/ developing the color. Certain CLAWS, like
those in the vicinity of Milwaukee, for
instance, contain little or no iron, and
the bricks made from them are light OF
cream colored.
Or. Giles de la Tourette has recently
published monograph upon normal 10
comotion and the variations in the gait
caused by the diseases Of the nervous
system. He found from a comparison of
large number of cases, that the average
length Ct a space Is, for men, twenty
five inches; for women, twenty inches
The step with the right foot is somewhat
longer than that with the left. The feet
arc separated laterally IN walking about
four and one-half inches in men, and
/ about five inches in women.
For extinguishing fire in closed spaces
where water would do much damage, Il
German physicist recommends a com
pound whose burning quickly absorbs
the oxygen and renders combustion i'm
possible. His preparation contains fifty
nine parts OF powdered saltpeter; thirty
six parts of powdered sulphur, four parts
of powdered charcoal and one part of
coicothar drowned oxide OF from lie
keeps the mixture in five pound paste
board boxes, with fuse protruding to
insure lighting it.
Professor Chen, OF Breslau the emf
nent ooulist, has recently touched upon
the influence of electric lighting on the
eyesisht lie remarks that rs diTuscd
daylight IS best for the eye, our artificial
lighting should aim at a similar diffusion.
Artificial light ssould no. dazzle nor
flicker, and 1t should be abundant with
out heating the eye. Glow lamps should
never be looked at unless blurred by
ground glass shades, because of the in
tense concentration of light on the line
of filament The electric light was, ac-
cording to Professor Chon. greatly 10 be
preferred to any other for reading or
writing by, if it be steady and abun-
daat
A series Of investigations on what
promises to assume important meiico-
legal aspects is reported from raris. NJ.
Meguin read paper b,iosc the Academy
Of Medicine wherein he demonstrated,
that after death series of organism y
the family Acasins are successfuy
veloped in the corpse. Tbs pe4 -
life in each is from six to eigh ~ !
One species feeds on -
another on the fr'''
when its
to; minin><
various species one Ca
probable date of death.
legations Will be looked for vi
EST, as the establishment of the
date of death becomes often OF pa
importance in criminal prosecutions